Sunday, May 16, 2004
Christ is Risen! (Tone 5)
Sunday of the Blind Man
Kellia: Deuteronomy 7:6-13 Apostle: Acts 16:6-34 Gospel: St. John 9:1-38
Deuteronomy 7:6-13, especially vs. 9: "Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God
Who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations."
The Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ declares that the love of God always is breaking free from the gloom of
human religious musings to astound our hearts and minds. Listen to St. Gregory the Great: "Our Creator hints to us how
great is His love with which He awaits us when He says through the Prophet: 'I have given heed and listened, but no one
speaks what is good: there is no one who thinks again in his heart and says, What have I done?' We ought never to have
thought of evil. But since we refused to think as we should, you see how He still bears with us in order that we may think
again. Look into His great well of kindness, think of His merciful heart open wide to us. He is seeking those thinking
again in the right way, whom He lost when they were thinking wrongly."
Today's reading reveals the care which God took to lay a rich foundation in order that His People might receive His love
when He came to them Incarnate. We see here already that the Prophet Moses discerned and taught that God's love is
freely given, not being bound by our worthiness nor by any claim we might think to make upon the Lord. Further, Moses
identified a number of ways, by which for many generations, God had specifically manifested His love to Israel. The
Prophet also made clear that while God is loving to those who "keep His commandments" (vs. 9), He likewise is
"not...slack with him who hates Him" (vs. 10).
In this reading, Moses plainly states: "the Lord your God has chosen you to be a People for His own possession" (vs. 6).
Lest any of God's ancient People ever should think that their ethnic heritage could command God's love, the Prophet
declares that nothing "outstanding" about them ever "caught" the eye of the Lord. After all, "the eyes of the Lord run to
and fro throughout the whole earth" (2 Chron. 16:9), and Israel was "the fewest of all peoples" (Deut. 7:7). Still, says
Moses, "the Lord set His love upon you and chose you," and his declaration applies to the Church, as well. Why does God
set His love upon us? Simply "because the Lord loves you" (vs. 8). As the Lord Jesus says, "freely ye have received" (Mt.
10:8).
See how Moses recalls the long history of evidence by which God's love was manifest before the eyes of ancient Israel: the
Lord swore to Abraham that in time to come He would bring his descendants out of bondage (vs. 8; Gen. 15:13-16), and He
did. Israel was redeemed from slavery under Pharaoh (Deut. 7:8). The love of God always is coupled with Divine
faithfulness; God keeps the vows He makes in covenant with His People (vs. 9). More significantly for the Church, God
also promised a Savior (Is. 53:4-5): the Suffering Servant came and dwelt among us and covered our sins with His precious
Blood.
Finally, the Prophet reveals that while God always loves His People and is ready to forgive them, yet His steadfast love
comes only to "those who love Him and keep His commandments" (Deut. 7:9). The love of God never is detached from a
demand for obedience. Hence, those who hearken to God's "ordinances, and keep and do them, the Lord your God will
keep with...steadfast love" (vs. 12). On the other hand, God "requites to their face those who hate Him, by destroying
them" (vs. 10). "The faithful God Who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His
commandments" (vs. 9), will love [His People, bless [them], and multiply [them]" (vs. 13) in very specific ways -
materially and spiritually (vs. 13). O Lord, save Thy People, and bless Thine inheritance, granting to Thy People victory
over all their enemies, and by the power of Thy Cross preserving Thy Kingdom.
